Category: ADHD - Child
Lauren M. Friedman, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona
Mary Solanto, Ph.D.
Northwell Health
Stamford, Connecticut
Lauren M. Friedman, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona
Joseph Raiker, Jr., Ph.D.
Florida International University
Miami, Florida
Whitney Fosco, PhD
Assistant Professor
Penn State College of Medicine
Hershey, Pennsylvania
James Waxmonsky, M.D.
Penn State College of Medicine
Hershey, Pennsylvania
Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common childhood mental health conditions, affecting approximately 7-11% of school-aged children (Thomas et al., 2015; Willcutt, 2012). A childhood diagnosis portends adverse outcomes across functional domains including home, school/occupational, and social functioning that often persist into adulthood (Barkley et al., 2006). Therefore, early and effective intervention is critical.
Behavioral Parent Training (BPT) is a well-established, evidence-based intervention for ADHD wherein caregivers are taught skills grounded in social learning and operant theory that are applied in their children’s daily lives. Behavioral interventions such as BPT are the only non-pharmacological intervention recognized as an evidence-based treatment for childhood ADHD, and are consistently recommended as a frontline treatment for the disorder (Wolraich et al., 2019).
Despite its designation as a gold-standard intervention, not all children benefit from BPT, and as many as 66% of children are poor responders (Swanson et al., 2001). Therefore, novel approaches to optimize interventions are needed to improve treatment response, and identification of pre-treatment factors that may predict or moderate intervention success may uncover potentially malleable targets for improving behavioral treatments. In addition, identifying baseline characteristics that portend a positive treatment response may aid clinicians in matching treatments to clients who are most likely to benefit from BPT.
ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder, and most modern etiological conceptualizations of the disorder implicate deficient cognitive processes as causal mechanisms of ADHD sequelae. It stands to reason that factors most proximal to ADHD symptoms and impairments may prove the largest predictor of behavioral treatment success, and complementary evidence from psychostimulant studies suggests that child cognitive performance is a predictor of treatment response (Molitor & Langberg, 2017). Yet relatively few studies have examined predictive relations between child neurocognitive abilities and treatment outcomes following BPT.
The present symposium examines child neurocognitive predictors of behavioral response across ADHD presentations (inattentive, combined), using varied methodological approaches (standardized intelligence assessments, laboratory-based measures, EEG), and examining wide-ranging treatment outcomes (ADHD symptoms, social functioning, academic performance, organizational skills, emotion regulation). Presenters will also discuss parental neurocognitive predictors of treatment response following behavioral parenting programs. Parental cognitive abilities are a critically overlooked factor to consider when examining patterns of treatment response, given that parents are the agent by which children ‘receive’ the intervention. Parental adherence, and therefore outcomes, are largely predicated on parental cognitive-mediated processes that enable parenting skill use, and the present symposium will present data on parental neurocognition as a predictive/moderating mechanism of treatment response.
Presenter: Lauren M. Friedman, Ph.D. – Arizona State University
Co-author: Keith McBurnett, PhD – University of California, San Francisco
Co-author: Stephen Hinshaw, PhD – University of California, berkeley
Co-author: Linda J. Pfiffner, Ph.D. – University of California San Francisco
Presenter: Joseph S. Raiker, Jr., Ph.D. – Florida International University
Co-author: Morgan Jusko, M.S. – Florida International University
Co-author: Jessica Smith, M.S. – Florida International University
Co-author: Mileini Campez, M.S. – Florida International University
Co-author: Kelcey J. Little, B.S., M.S. – Emory University School of Medicine
Co-author: Elizabeth Gnagy, M.S. – Florida International University
Co-author: Andrew Greiner, B.S. – Florida International University
Co-author: Justin Parent, Ph.D. – Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Co-author: Erika Coles, Ph.D. – Florida International University
Co-author: William E. Pelham Jr., Ph.D. – Center for Children and families, Florida International University
Presenter: Whitney Fosco, PhD – Penn State College of Medicine
Co-author: Dustin E. Sarver, Ph.D. – University of Mississippi Medical Center
Co-author: Michael Kofler, PhD – Florida State University
Co-author: Paula Aduen, PhD – Massachusetts General Hospital
Presenter: James Waxmonsky, M.D. – Penn State College of Medicine
Co-author: Daniel Waschbush, Ph.D – Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Penn State College of Medicine
Co-author: Whitney Fosco, PhD – Penn State College of Medicine
Co-author: Avleen Walia, BA – Penn State Collège of Medicine
Co-author: Urveesha Nirjar, M.A. – Penn State College of Medicine
Co-author: Autumn Kujawa, Ph.D. – Vanderbilt University